Picture a Perfect Parade

This being the Pistahan Parade’s 23rd year, we always are looking at ways to be bigger, louder but also showcase what it truly means to be Filipino/Filipino-American. With our mix of floats, bands and cultural dancing, we at the Parade Street Team believe we have accomplished that.

As with the past few years, we will be assembling our parade units at Civic Center plaza and marching promptly at 11a.m down Market Street and ending at Yerba Buena Gardens. Our parade is essentially the “kickoff” to our 2-day festival.Some of the sights and sounds that we have specifically this year include, 4 colorful floats, 6 marching bands and 3 “Higantes” which are giant puppets that are a spectacle authentic to the Philippines.Looking at our Pistahan logo, we have always strive to represent our jeepney in some form and this year, we actually have a full-sized jeepney being driven all the way from Port Washington.Though we are indeed a Filipino themed parade, we also want to represent San Francisco, and with one of our groups being the Golden Gate Garrison 501st Brigade of Stormtroopers, I believe we can happily say that we are representing both the Filipino community and the Bay Area community.ABS-CBN/TFC will again be bringing their headliners, Erich Gonzalez and Daniel Matsunaga from the hit drama in the Philippines, “Be My Lady” and you can be sure that they will be celebrating with us in our parade.

There are many more exciting things to see on August 13 and we hope to see the community celebrating with us down Market Street.Admission as always is free!

JOHN ESPIRITU (johnE.pistahan@ gmail.com) is a DeVry graduate, Pistahan Parade Operations Manager, and Pistahan Volunteer for six years.